Children in every culture enjoy playing with toy dolls. Typically a doll is used by the child in imaginative play to enable the child to imitate adult role models and/or play act fantasy roles. The doll is usually a passive participant in the play but fulfills an important role as it frees the child to relate in an adult way towards the doll without causing offense. In view of the important role dolls can have in the play of children, toy manufacturers have tried to incorporate additional features in toy dolls in order to enhance their play value. The play value of a toy is a measure of its ability to capture and maintain the interest and involvement of a child. The greater the play value, the longer a child will continue to play with and remain amused by the toy.
In recent years some toy manufacturers have produced dolls that can be fed liquid from a bottle and which also wet themselves as a result. However, the behaviour of such dolls is very predictable and the play value of the doll is not greatly enhanced since it is often unable to maintain the interest and involvement of the child. Furthermore, the internal mechanism that enables the doll to both ingest and excrete liquid is fairly bulky, and it has therefore not been possible to produce a miniature doll with similar features.